I Am the Sea
by Daisy If You Have
Summary: AU, Michiru is an Endless, a goddess of the sea, living on an island with her sisters and paying little attention to the world of men, until one day a young blonde captain washes up on her shores. The love between an Endless and a mortal is foolhardy at best.


I am the sea

"I've been called many things, in the time humans have been in the world. Siren, mermaid, goddess, one of the seven sisters of the seven seas, the list goes ever on. I forget many of them, now. What humans choose to call us in the brief times they walk this earth does not change what we are. We are the Endless, we came before the humans and we shall last long after the last one perishes.

I lived with my sisters, in those days. My father, lonely and unable to rule the sea himself with the humans taking to it in larger numbers, had asked for our creation long ago, and since that time, we have taught man the proper respect for the sea. Father spent most of his time in the court of the sky- He was fond of such grand spectacle, but my sisters and I preferred our little island on the sea where we slept and swam and laid in the sun and toyed with the humans who dared to attempt conquest of that which was ours. Hundreds of years passed, humans coming up with silly warnings and superstitions to protect themselves from us, too foolish to realize that their lives or deaths relied only on our whim or pleasure. Some of my sisters would take a man as her slave or amusement for a few days or weeks, but this never interested me. I preferred to swim in the ocean, free and unfettered, to sing to the ships and watch them dash upon the rocks as men, unable to resist my call, turned their boats toward certain doom. I didn't prefer to play with the creatures before I killed them.

All in all, I was quite happy.

And then something changed, in me. The humans would later call it the Golden Age of Piracy, but for us it only mattered that there were more of them on the water, more to play with and feed upon. My sisters and sat upon the rocks of our home, a young man on the shore beneath us, his ship torn and his fellow crewmen feeding the children of the sea.

Marina laughed, "Oh, he's so adorable. Maybe I'll keep him awhile. Just for fun."

"Marina." Oceana let her long hair loose from its shells, and the teal green mass enveloped her, shining in the sun, "You keep entirely too many of these boys. Father's going to think you prefer humans. You know the rules."

"Nonsense, you just don't like it when I take a pet because none of them like you." She stuck her nose in the air, and moved off the rocks toward the young man, who stared at us above him, a growing horror on his face that brought a smile to my lips.

"The-the Seven Sisters!" He stepped back a few feet, and I had to laugh, where was he going to go- the ocean?

Marina touched his face delicately. She always did have a weakness for these young ones, collecting them like a child with a shiny rock until she grew tired of them. "Yes, little one. We are the Endless of the Sea. Welcome home."

He shook visibly, "Are you-you kill men..."

"Well," Firtha interrupted, "Only when we want to."

"We must guard the sea from your kind, you know," Kai added, nodding.

I finally looked up from my mirror. Marina was so fanciful. She always had to have something new, whether she really wanted it or not. I did not understand the amusement she got from these silly little creatures, and I was tired of having them around my island. I looked down from my rock, where she was circling the youth, examining him, "Marina, you have too many pets. This one isn't any different from anything you've had before," I tossed my hair behind me, "Besides, this whole exercise of taking pets is so childish."

"Michiru, I swear, you are the least fun creature in all of creation." Her lip jutted out in a pout.

I gazed back at my mirror and put my hair up with a nearby piece of coral, "You can't have everything, where would you put it, sister dear?"

"Oh, very well," Marina huffed. She looked straight at the boy, and the rocks seemed to echo with the sound of her siren's voice. "Go to the sea, boy. Drink deep and drown."

Men do what they are commanded.

It was not more than a few weeks later that we found another ship that displeased us. The captain was a young, hot-headed blonde, pillaging an impressive load of gold and silver from the Spanish Navy. He seemed particularly impressed with himself, the way he walked across the deck, his arm around a young woman he obviously must have picked up in some port and called onboard with sweet words and a fair amount of ale. The arrogance of humans never failed to impress and disgust me.

We called up the wind and sea, the crew scrambling to their sails, the young captain at his wheel, throwing his body against it, railing against the pull of the wind. His hat had blown off, and the rain pouring down dripped off the end of his small, low, ponytail that was the fashion. The wind threatened to blow off his coat, and he fought valiantly against it. His boot slipped in the wet, and in that moment the ship listed starboard, as I knocked a wave against the side of it. The crew cried and scrambled and their captain cursed God, but none of it mattered, as if it ever could. The joy of humans realizing the impermanence of their lives, and the indifference of we Endless to their troubles, never failed to please me. In their panic and their fear, they finally saw themselves as they were.

The ship splintered, and the captain called his men to the few boats they had, lowering them into the sea. A futile attempt. We sank the boats as soon as they cleared the wreckage. The captain saw his men, calling out in the sea, took up a flagon of wine, and, head hung, sat with his back to the wheel of the ship and waited to die.

The morning came, dawn creeping over the sea guided by those chariots of fire, and to our surprise, there was a man still alive in the sea, clinging to a board and kicking, exhausted, toward our home. The refusal of human beings to die in the face of insurmountable evidence suggesting it as the wisest course of action always astounded me.

"At least there will be something to do today! I do always look forward to this."

She spoke in the honeyed voice that commanded the men, "Why don't you go walk into the sea?"

He looked at her for a moment, and let his sword drop to his size, eyebrow cocked,"I barely made it to this island, are you mad?"

We stood, for a moment, unsure of how our powers had failed us. No man had ever- And then I looked a little harder, and smiled.

Ula stepped forward, "No man can resist our call, boy. How is it that you-"

"She is no man, sister," I interrupted, laughing, "Am I right? Who are you, woman who dresses as a man?"

Ula crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, "Oh, I can never tell the humans apart, they all look the same to me. I always hate when we get women, we have to get rid of them the old-fashioned way."

The boyish woman stepped toward us, her close-cropped blonde hair shining in the sunlight, and pulled her sopping wet coat over the modest swell of her breasts. "You know, why does practical clothing always have to be 'men's' clothing? I'll have you know, this clothing is mine and hasn't belonged to a man anymore than I have. Why-"

"Who are you, girl?" Oceana's voice boomed, "Some...kitchen wench?"

"CAPTAIN Haruka Tenoh, thank you!"

"Ooooh captain!" Marina laughing merrily, "We're all very impressed, human. Truly. Your title is noted."

Kai puzzled, "Do the humans let women be captains? I can never remember."

She brought her sword up again, and looked as if to challenge us. "Nobody lets me do anything. I do what I do, and I do it well, and you would do well not to stand in my way. I am the most dangerous captain on any sea, and I will have words with anyone who says otherwise."

For a moment, we weren't sure what to do. It was remarkable that a human had taken so long to recognize us for what we were, and I could not decide if it was a credit to her bravado or a demerit to her intelligence.

Oceana rose to her feet. "You seek interesting moments for arguments, Captain Tenoh."

"Just because I'm being heckled by seven damp maid-OH DAMN." A sudden horror crossed her face. "The Seven Sisters of the Seven Seas...uh, you're right, I'm not a man, what a HILARIOUS MISUNDERSTANDING." She gave a half hearted salute, "You ladies keep making the sea safe for...fish, or what have you. It's been my pleasure."

Oceana waved her hand and the kelp rose from the sea, grabbing the young captain's legs and dragging her toward the dark grey water. She tried to cling to the sand, teeth gritted in determination, but it ran between her fingers and gave no relief. A lash of the dark water came and wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her into the deep. I saw that near-universal look of panic fill her eyes as she realized these were her last moments, but it did not give me the pleasure it had in the past. I heard her gasp just before the shock of blonde hair disappeared beneath the glittering oblivion.

"Stop." The words escaped my mouth before I even knew I had wanted to say it.

"Michiru?" Oceana looked at me, puzzled.

"Bring her back."

The seas threw her onto the shore, and she lay motionless for a moment before choking and coughing up the seawater, gasping for the air that we'd taken.

Marina giggled, her smile like the sun crossing the water. "Michiru wants a pet! Finally, though I do have to question your choices. You've never taken a pet!"

Kai looked at me strangely, "Is that what you desire? Our voices have no power over a woman, Michiru. A better slave you can find."

Firtha rolled to her side on the rock, put her hand on her cheek, and shrugged, "You can even have mine, if you desire. I've tired of him, I was going to command him into the sea anyhow. He behaves."

"Perhaps I feel the challenge is what I need." I walked down to where she was recovering, on all fours like the human animal all of them are, "She has an energy about her."

She looked up at me, grey eyes like the cliffs that bordered our sea, her mouth in a hard line, defiant and angry, "I'm not your toy, I don't care what you are! If you're going to kill me, do it now."

"Yes, I think I'll keep this one awhile," I looked back to my sisters, "She amuses me."

We plunged her into the lagoon on the island, fresh with flowers and fruits abundant. The sprites laughed as they cleaned her, thrashing about in the water and trying to knock them off as they scrubbed out the dirt and grime of the ship, poured sweet-smelling nectars over her head, polished her for my use. I sat on the bank with my sisters, watching her struggle in futility against the great offense of being clean.

I waved them off, and she stood in the middle of the lagoon, arms crossed and brow furrowed. Without the bagginess of her clothes, I took her in, in her entirety. Her hair was much paler, almost sandy, than the grimy brass it had been before. Her eyes were the same intense grey they had been on the beach, but her skin now set her apart as a human of the north, along with her slender, slightly upturned nose and the firmness of her jaw. She wore a single small gold hoop in her left ear, but was otherwise unadorned. There was an unmistakable curve at her hip, and behind her crossed arms her breasts seemed to be small yet cheerful, but otherwise her body was lithe and boyish, dotted and slashed with scars earned on the sea, and it did not surprise me that my sisters and I had mistaken her at first.

"Where's my sword? And my clothes?"

"Neither will be returned to you, because neither will you require." I snapped my fingers, and the sprites brought out the simple shirt and pants we had always dressed our pets in. She waded to shore and pulled the shirt over her head, frowning. "This will serve until I tire of you, and serve you into the sea."

She pulled the pants, on, mumbling, "Story of my goddamn life, it seems," She looked up at me, and spoke clearly, looking me in the eye as humans rarely do, "What do you want with me?"

I puzzled for a moment, because I had never really considered it. It did not give me pleasure to see her drown, and it gave me pleasure to have her live, and so I had acted accordingly. But as to what I would do with such a creature, I had no idea.

My sisters laughed.

"Yes, Michiru," Marina giggled, "What WILL you do with her?"

Oceana tied her hair up with a strand of kelp and smiled at the girl, "Do you have any talents in particular, girl?"

She pulled her hair back into its small tail at the nape of her neck, "My name. is. Haruka."

Firtha rose up, calling up the waters of the lagoon, "You speak such disrespect to ones who could end your life, human."

She seemed unimpressed, pulling on her boots, 'You're going to kill me whenever you feel like it anyhow. I know the myths. You took my men, you took my ship, you took ALL THAT GOLD, GODDAMN, I don't care, kill me, get it over with."

"See, sisters?" I smiled at them over my shoulder, "This one is much more fun than your boys you can control. The unpredictability of the sea is what draws humans to it, perhaps I'm not so unlike them after all," I faced her and extended my hand, "Very well, Haruka. You will be my pet for as long as it pleases .me, and then I shall cast you into the sea with the others. Come."

It was true enough what my sisters had said- I had no idea what to do with a pet, having never taken one, and so we spent several awkward days inhabiting the space of my island and my dwelling, barely speaking, never touching, her looking out onto the water wistfully. She did not amuse me much, but still I could not bear to see her drown. There was a beauty in her face, illuminated by the moonlight, as she gazed out the window at the sea, and I understood why the humans kept drawings and statues- some things were simply pleasant to look at.

The days slipped into weeks, and I was beginning to think I had made a mistake. My sisters had little advice for me- they had never taken a woman, they preferred their pets domesticated. And none of had ever had any interest in talking to a human for more than five words before Haruka washed up on our shore. I had heard of Endless who had taken human companions, as if they were equals, and wondered what they could possibly have to say to each other. She was beautiful enough, but knew nothing of swimming with the creatures of the sea, or of knowing the sight of each sunrise, different from the last, over thousands of years. And I knew so little of the human world, their small dramas and petty wars. I found myself asking her about Greek wars and her feelings on Viking lore, all questions met with a confused look and a blushing confession that she'd lacked schooling, and in truth could only write her name.

"Are you enjoying your pet, Michiru?" Ula laughed one day, "Do you enjoy sitting in silence with some human?"

"She always was such a strange little starfish," Kai added. "We won't hold it against you to be wrong, sister. I believe Oceana would even be willing to dispense of her for you and save you the trouble."

"I don't want to send her into the sea."

"Whyever not? Simple stubbornness?" Firtha flipped her hair across her back and made a face.

"Because she is mine to do with as I wish, and I don't wish it. Stop trying to goad me," I turned my back to them and began to muss with my hair. "You all have taken far more foolish things in, I know that to be true." Any doubt that had been in me about Haruka now turned to a desire to teach her something of my world, to make her a part of it and show them all that she had something to offer me, and taking her as a pet had not been all foolishness. I do not care to lose.

As we laid around the lagoon in the afternoon sun, I turned to Haruka, smiled, and, finally filled with an idea, took her hand. "Come with me. I want to show you something. I doubt any human's ever seen it."

She did not say anything, but followed me closely down the jungle paths that crossed the island, thick with green and heavy with the musk of rain and secrets that lie deep in lands where humans do not go. I saw the final turn, and made her stop.

"You need to close your eyes. I will lead you there."

She smiled at me, awkwardly, "So long as those aren't the last words I hear on this earth." and then closed her eyes. I led her by the hand into the clearing, and she opened her eyes. The forest canopy was overgrown over the clearing, and it would have been dark save for the tiny points of light the came through like stars, and the fairies that flitted around, colors aglow, their tiny stream and pool surrounded by the thousand lights that made up their existence, extending to the top of the canopy like decorations for a party.

Haruka's mouth hung open, and for several moments she said nothing at all. I noticed a small tear come to her eye, which she quickly wiped away. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

I came to her side, overjoyed in finding this one thing we could share. "It's a shame I did not think to bring you earlier. These things are so commonplace to me."

The gratitude on her face was genuine. "It's wonderful." She sat down on the lush moss that carpeted the floor of the forest. "I could spend my whole life here. I guess I will, like it or not," She chuckled halfheartedly "But still, you don't often see things like this when you're most of your life on the sea."

I settled down next to her, "How does a young woman find piracy, exactly?"

"My father died when I was little, we didn't have anything to eat, I was the oldest, so, my mother sold me to a trader-"

"She sold you?"

"Children have to eat, I guess. Any case, sold me, captain took me under his wing, always told me he'd sell me to a man at the next port for a wife. Went on for a lot of years like that. Taught me to sail, to fight, told me he'd sell me off in the next port, taught me to lead, made me first mate, told me he'd sell me off in the next port. By that time, he excused his failure to do so by my looks- wouldn't fetch a very high price he said," she laughed, "He was probably right. When he died, he left the ship and the men in my care. Gave me his sword." She sighed, "And now all of it's at the bottom of the sea, some captain I am."

"You were known, in the human world?"

"Naturally! I could sail, and fight, and drink so well as any man in the sea." she smirked. "I daresay I had a bit of notoriety before all this."

"And a man never took you for his wife?"

At this she laughed as deeply and honestly as I'd ever heard her, "God above, no. I'd like to see the man who thought he could try. I have...a men's taste, I guess they'd say in polite circles. Not that I ever found myself in any of them."

I gazed up at the fairies, all but ignoring our talk as they continued on their little lives, "I always preferred the nymphs to the satyrs myself," I looked at her, "If you catch my meaning."

She cocked her eyebrow, but I turned away and smiled at the beauty in front of us, and for the first time, simply enjoyed her company, as the sun began to set, and that little clearing got both darker and brighter, somehow.

We walked back to my home in darkness, the sound of the waves against the rocks our constant companion, the fairies at our feet to light our way. I was beginning to feel very charitable toward this creature of mine, and she seemed to walk with a newfound confidence in her step. It suited her. As we approached my home, she put her arm around my shoulder, and whispered in her cocky, assured tone:

"Listen here, love, we know you're sweet on me, and if you could give me a way out of here-"

"FOOL!" with a sweep of my arm, the sea rose in a crest, and pinned her against the rock, "You mistake my kindness for weakness. I am the sea, and no one owns me!" My siren's voice boomed against the rocks, and the shore birds began to scatter as a storm gathered on the horizon. I dropped her back to the beach, and she lay for a moment, and then, sitting back on her feet, looked at me, turning something over in her mind, and I could not read whether it was fear or pleasure or a mix.

"Right." She slowly got to her feet, and walked toward me"You weren't wrong about not being like humans." The arrogance in her face had been replaced by something, an emotion I did not know, and she stood, inches from me, saying nothing, just looking, like one might look into the depths, knowing you can never see the bottom, wondering what might be down there.

I stroked her cheek as if by instinct, and there was a warmth in me, rising from the deep. She's a human. I told myself, but my disobedient hands slithered to her chest, to the secret treasure of her breasts, which stood pert, waiting for my signal. I felt her hand on the back of my neck, her rough hands moving across my shoulders like a splintering boat against the glass of the sea. I pulled her close to me, and kissed her, immersive, quiet, full, like jumping from a cliff into the ocean.

I believed I had some idea of what to do with a pet, now.

A wall broke between us in those months. We walked arm in arm down the beach, and I taught her the ways of the ocean, and she delighted at how the coral bloomed beneath my hand, and the colors of fish that swam about her feet at my command. I found myself not just craving the pleasures of her body, but enjoying the sound of her voice as she told me old stories of her crew, and of growing up on a ship, and how she would reenact the stories for the greatest possible dramatic effect, using a stick as her sword, always with a clever quip to her enemy. I believe she enjoyed her stories as much as anyone else did, and perhaps more. My sisters grew concerned that I was growing dull in keeping just Haruka as my pet, but they took to enjoying her stories as well, and soon it was as if she were a part of our home always, forgetting that she had ever been a human like all the others.

Every night, we enjoyed the pleasure of each other. She told me once, in a tender moment, that it was like swimming. The taste of salt on her tongue, the feeling of being enveloped totally, the freedom of the sea made flesh. I cannot express what it felt to me, in that I have never felt anything like it, before or since. It was nothing like the dalliances I'd had with the nymphs of the forest, lazy and cool like a river through the valley. It was hot and immediate, full of urgency and passion, the sweat coming off our bodies like the stream where the lava meets the sea. The lava built islands, and so we too, built our own world in the wake of our need. Then, I would send her to her little bed in the corner of the room, as I laid basking in the glow of my newfound selfishness. But one night, the rain came through the window and spilled onto her bed. She began to move her things to the floor, and though I did not know why, I let her stay. And she never left my bed thereafter, though she was always careful to stick to the edge and not disturb me, and I felt little need to call her closer.

The sun lay low in the sky one day, and I lay my head upon her shoulder, as the dolphins danced out in the waves, squeaking their poems to the sea and their tales of men they had rescued from the water in the game they ever played with our kind.

"What do you think I am? To you?"

"I don't understand what you mean. You are Haruka, you are mine, what else is there?"

"Do you- am I-," she sighed, frustrated.

"What, my darling? If you require anything, just ask and I'll deliver it to you. How about some sweets? I do know you like those." I kissed her neck, and then rose to my feet. "Come, let's away to the lagoon, where my sisters wait. Tell me, if you think of what it is."

She lagged a few steps behind me, deep in thought.

She spoke my name, like a wonderful secret in the dark, moonlight-dappled room. The change had already happened to me; I was too blind and too proud to see it. I turned to her, and she moved closer. The heat of her body was so close to mine, but it was not filled with the same fire of need I had come to know. This was different, somehow. She paused, and the tension in the air was palpable, her desire for something I did not know, and something she was scared to ask for, even with all the times we had explored the secrecy of each other's bodies. She stumbled over her words, saying nothing but a collection of sounds, stopped, and then gingerly, like a frightened child, lay her head on my shoulder.

In my centuries of rule, many people had begged me for their lives, crying and shaking, and yet those felt less pleading and and less tense then this simple act. Her body was tight with anxiety, her breath short and focused, her eyes closed as if she did not want to see what came next. I shifted, lifted up my hand, and gently began to stroke her hair. She took my other hand, and gently kissed my palm, sighed, and her body relaxed against mine.

And with that, I lost myself in her.

We passed nearly a year in that way, growing ever closer. But she grew melancholy, and spent her days staring out the window at the sea, and the stories she told of the ship no longer took on the ebullient humor of the past, but a sad wistfulness.

" I miss the ship. And the ports. And the water." Her chin rested on the windowsill like an old dog who would no longer leave the porch.

"You have everything you could want, here."

"Except freedom. I'm your pet, remember? When I had a ship..."

I touched her shoulder and tried to comfort her, "I no longer think that. You are my cherished one, and you know that to be true. Why live a life of difficulty and struggle out there, when I will give you whatever your heart desires? I look only to pamper you."

"You can put a parrot in a gilded cage, but it's still a cage. Remember what you said when we met? You wanted the challenge." She shrugged, and looked at me sadly. "I'm just moping today, don't pay it any mind."

But the sadness was etched on her face, and, like a sword that had lost its edge, I could not cause her pain any longer. I called her to the seaside a few mornings later, as the fire of the sun turned the sky to pink. She stared out at the sea, and I presented her with a velvet bag.

She looked at me, puzzled, "What did you get me?" and plowed into the bag like a child on Christmas Day. She paused when she found the contents, and when she looked up, there were tears in her eyes, "It's my sword. And a coat."

"I know you have more or less charitable feelings about your sword, but I couldn't allow you to leave with the ratty old coat. So I had a new one made." I stared off into the sunrise, the wind crisp and fresh in my face.

"Leave?"

"I'm giving you what you crave most- the freedom to leave me." I waved my hand, and the seas rolled and roiled, and slowly began to dispense gold from the ocean floor at her feed. "Go and find a crew, and a ship, and find your dream."

She took my hand, and kissed my palm in her tender and familiar way. "I am always on the sea, Michiru. We don't need to be apart."

"You're my pet."

"No, "She cupped my cheek in her hand and turned my head to meet her gaze, "I choose you. You gave me freedom, and I give you the greatest treasure there is! My love."

I rolled my eyes, but held her close to me, and smiled.

And so began the strangest partnership ever conceived by either god or man. She quickly amassed a crew, and a ship, and it seemed as naturally as breathing to her, this business of ordering men around and searching the sea. Even in a storm, she sat on her ship, the wind in her face, alive with the glory of the sea. I loved her most in those moments. Her lack of fear, her joy in the unknown, all were the things that drew us together. I loved how men were intimidated to see her colors fly in the wind, how they threw down their swords and blunderbusses when she boarded. She was to man as I was, a force, a power they could not control and did not understand. I ached for her as I watched her, anticipating the heat and the storm of her bed. She was always so receptive when she had a storeroom full of treasure.

When the men came ashore, we stayed together, in some little hideaway by the sea. I saw less and less of my sisters, of my Father, of anything relating to a world I had once rejoiced in. Haruka became my world entire, and she, equally wrapped up in me, enjoyed a particular luck on the sea, despite being a woman and a whistler besides.

It was not often that pirates battled against each other, whatever you might read in books now. The coin was in merchant ships and naval ships, and so most crews preferred to make money rather than enemies. The sea was strange that day in many ways, though, and for this reason, Haruka ran up against a captain much like herself. Her name was Seiya, and the humans spoke of her as they did of Haruka- a mix of confusion and respect and fear. She tended toward the north of Africa, and so it was a great surprise to see her in the blue waters of our Caribbean.

Haruka put down the telescope, and considered a moment. The ship seemed to be coming toward them, but whatever would they do that for? Seiya was smart enough to know that Haruka quickly offloaded anything she took off a ship- carrying cargo was a risk she was unwilling to take. The only reason Seiya could be heading toward their ship at such a clip would be if-

BOOM

A cannonball whirled past her ear and took part of the back rail. She hardly had time to ready the men before the ship was upon her, and I watched from the sea as smoke and the clashing of swords overtook both vessels. It was impossible to see in the chaos, and I lost sight of Haruka for several minutes. I dove deep down into the sea, and came up on the other side of the boats, hoping for some sign of life in her. And then, there she was, on the starboard bow of the boat, pressed against it by Captain Seiya, barely hanging on. The boat listed, and Haruka nearly fell, but managed to pull herself up, only to find a sword at her throat. She closed her eyes and braced herself, and in the shadow and snoke, I saw Pluto, ready standing, to take her. She stared at me, questioning and warning all at the same moment, and I broke from her gaze. With a wave of my hand, the sea rose up and washed Seiya onto her back, giving Haruka an opportunity to gather her sword and force a surrender. Pluto faded into the smoke, and I sank back under the water, and swam to the home of me and my sisters.

Firtha stormed up to me, the waves choppy in her wake, "You let her go. You saved her from her own fate. You continue to carry this on, though she should be far from holding your interest. You have breached the laws of our own world. The entire court is talking about it. This is lunacy of the highest order, everyone thinks you've gone mad! "

I looked down into the tiny pools at the edge of the tide, so small but so full of excitement and life, while the waves gently lapped over the rocks and into the pool. I envied the small scope of their world, a small kingdom they could understand and rule. They were not faced with the immensity of the sea.

"Michiru!"

"I do not deny it."

"You must cast her into the sea. Before it's too late. Everyone will forgive you this...frivolity"

"I will do no such thing, I intend to keep her as my companion, and you know that. I am immoveable from this choice." I continued to gaze down at the little fish in the tidal pool, playing and out of the little nooks in the rock.

"Sister, you know this is forbidden," she took my hand in both of hers and looked at me, pleading, "It is not forbidden to bring you pain, but only to save you from it. Their lives are the length of a summer in the eye of a child, Michiru. She cannot bring you joy, but only loss. And you can never join her."

"This is my choice to make, Firtha. I have made it. I love her."

"Don't say such foolish things."

"I do, and I do not care if you disapprove. Or Father, or the King. It is no matter to me."

"The King will not make her immortal for you, if that's your thought on the matter." She dropped my hands and and stared at me pointedly.

"I know the laws, I would not ask it."

She hung her head, "My Michiru. Why would you do this to your own heart?"

And I simply walked away. I walked away from my home forever.

I spent those years with her, and they were so much like my sister had warned- bright and beautiful and oh so fast. We kissed in the moonlight under the banner of the treetops in my island home, I sat at her side in a tavern where her crew made jokes and tormented the other men about their good fortune, not only with a woman on board, but with a woman as their captain! It all seems like the matter of an instant, now, but for you it would have been many years.

Her riches grew, and she gave them away, for she had everything while she had me. I protected her from the harms of man and my sisters, and she set free in me a thing I did not even know trapped. My world had been so full of finery and power, but I had not realized how lonely I was until she filled that place in me. We spent days on the sea, and nights close together, nuzzling in the small corner of the ship that was her quarters. I dallied about on islands, and she would come to me, and I would braid the flowers into her small ponytail and laugh, and I quite forgot all about the other humans on the sea, or the passage of time, for none of it seemed to matter.

In time, Haruka retired from piracy, and set to a small house on our favorite island, and I rarely thought of any life I might have left behind with my sisters. My days and nights were spent at her side, and I was deliriously happy.

As the summer sun set from the sky one year and gave rise to winter, so too did my Haruka begin to dim. I had always chastised the humans for their arrogance, but I had not seen my own. I had believed she would last forever, despite the warnings of Father and my sisters, despite the King's refusal to grant me her immortality and health. I was the golden child of the sea, how could a cruel fate befall me?

She smiled at me half-heartedly one evening. "I'm wearing out a little bit, I think. Don't work as well as I used to." The years had made a mark on her they never did on me, her hair growing more pale and silver every passing year, the slight limp when she walked, the crinkles at the corner of her eyes. Were human's lives so short? It had never occurred to me to pay attention enough to know. She sat down gingerly in her armchair, wincing a bit. Her tabby cat jumped into her lap immediately, and she scratched it under the chin. "You may want to find some other strapping young lass to be your captain, Michiru. I'm not the girl I was." She looked into the fire, "I'm hardly a good match for you anymore."

"You don't look the same, no," I stroked her cheek, "But I have never wanted another. I love only you, even if you are human, and prone to fits of mortality."

She kissed my palm and looked up at me sadly, "I don't know how much longer I'll be, my mermaid. I'm getting tired. This isn't fair to you. You're just as beautiful as the day I met you, and I... Go on now and remember me better than this."

"It was always my punishment to choose, Haruka," I crouched down, looked her in the eye, and said softly, "I am the sea, and no one owns me."

I was not accustomed to begging, but as it so happened, I was not above it.

"Father, you could go before the King. Or before Pluto. We are deeply beloved of the court, and Pluto and I have always found friendship, I have sent so many men to her that surely she would not begrudge me this one soul." I almost believed myself. It sounded easy enough, in this moment.

"My daughter. I cannot do this. I will not do this." He stroked my hair, "My beautiful, level-headed Michiru, what have you done?"

And for once, my voice broke, "Please."

He turned from me sadly, "My poor child."

I grabbed his arm and pulled him back, "Than make me mortal! Send me with her, for if she cannot stay, I wish to die!"

He grabbed me by both of my shoulders, his face dark with anger, "You were warned! You were told, time and again! You chose this path, Michiru! I will not grant your wish, nor shall any of the Endless! You chose to love one below your station! This hell is of your own making!" He released me violently, and I fell.

I returned to our home, the one we'd built on love and in hope. I was reminded of how, the day we met, she tried to cling to the sand as it slipped between her fingers, and for the first time, I knew how she had felt.

Her cough had worsened significantly, and she had grown pale and weak, her breath coming more harshly each day. I stayed at her side, always hoping that somehow, she would rally, or the King would take mercy on me and save her life, every morning that she still lay breathing a beacon of hope for me. She caught me, staring out the window and pleading to the sky one night, invoking every tear and prayer and favor I had to call in the court. I heard only silence.

"Michi," she called out softly.

I went to her side and sat on the edge of the bed she'd hardly left. I stroked her hair and she smiled weakly, "Never thought I'd see a day…where I accepted something and you fought it."

"I'll speak with Pluto myself. I don't prefer it, but I was once on-"

"Stop." Her voice had presence, even as it lacked strength. "I'm laying down my sword," she paused a moment to catch her breath, "It's over, Michiru."

"I want to help you!"

"Just hold my hand." She looked at me, half pleading, "That's all."

I was not accustomed to losing. I was not accustomed to being wrong. I was not accustomed to all of the thousands of tiny failures that make up a human life. Father had turned his back to my need, the other Endless only looked on me in pity and shame, the King had laughed at my request…I was the golden child, and now I was the fool. I hung my head low. "I failed you, my love."

She shook her head. "It's just human life, mermaid. Welcome to it." She closed her eyes, "We're born, we live a little while, and then-" her voice trailed off.

I took my hand in hers, and watched the shaky rise and fall of her chest, waiting for each wave.

The stories I heard of humans had their deaths coming quickly, either by terror or by glory, but I was to learn that was not often so, and it was not so for my Haruka. She faded away like writing in the sand, little by little, until one night, she slipped away from the comfort of my arms into the new adventure of the Underworld.

Pluto never answered my cries.

I laid her to rest on our beloved island- you now call it Bermuda, I believe, and as I sat with my pain, I realized I had been neglecting my duties.

I took up my sword with a vengeance. All now tremble in my wake. My sisters have grown weak and forgiving in the passing years, but not I. I stay near her ever. I have become a legend in the dark for the humans, something they fear as they cross my water. I am, as they say, cruel and merciless. I am making up for lost time, you see. I spent those years sparing you, for the love of one of you, but never will I allow one of you to rule my heart again.

And that is why, dear human, I cannot spare your life, or the life of your children. For the pain you have caused me."

The last thing the man heard was the click of her fingers, and the swell of the sea.


End file.
